Mood: don't ask
Topic: "Silence of the Lambs"(2)
"Bring in the first Prisoner."
"State your name for the record."
"Why am I here?"
"Your name please!"
"Look, I don't know who you are, I don't know why I'm here, and I'm not telling you anything. I demand a lawyer."
"You will answer the questions put before you by this tribunal."
"And if I choose not to do so?"
"You will suffer the consequences."
"No one has informed me of my rights."
"No one is required to inform you of anything."
"Yeah, well according to the MIRANDA decision. . ."
"The reference you make does not apply because you have been deemed to be an 'unlawful enemy combatant'."
"What? Deemed by whom?"
"This tribunal."
"Listen dude, I don't know who you are, and I don't know what this is all about, but somebody has made a big mistake."
"I repeat, state your name for the record."
"I refuse to answer based on my rights under the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution."
"As I stated previously, you are subject only to the authority granted to the President by the Congress of the United States on this date in American history. The President has thereby directed the creation of this tribunal in order to provide for the public safety by bringing unlawful enemy combatants into the legal system expeditiously. Now, what is your name, boy?"
"I was born in this country. I am a free man. I have rights as a citizen."
"I am telling you to provide this tribunal with your name and I will not ask you again."
"Good. I see I'm finally getting through to you."
"Bailiff, remove this enemy of the people, and let him sit in a cell until he is ready to answer the questions of this tribunal."
"You can't do this. My God, this is America."
What you have just read, dear reader, according to Frodo, is all legal and consistent with the signing into law of that which removes "Habeas Corpus" from the rights of an American citizen. You, an American citizen, can be brought before some who may question your loyalty, and you can be imprisoned without the rights granted to you by the Constitution of the United States.
TS Eliot said that our world would end not with a bang, but with a whimper. While you worried, dear reader, about whether or not the Cardinals could go a game up on the Mets, or if gas prices were going to go back to $3 a gallon, you created the framework for despotism that you once read about in the book "Animal Farm."
Frodo and Sam are picking up the pace to reach the summit of Mount Doom, to destroy the Ring. The Dead must follow Aragorn into battle at Pelennor Fields, for the living who face Sauron are too few.
Posted by loveysdaddyga
at 9:24 PM EDT